


How To Tempt A Change Of Fate

by athingofvikings



Series: How To Change A Destiny (HTTYD Urban Fantasy AU) [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fae Hiccup, Faecup, Future Hiccstrid, Modern AU, Pre-Hiccstrid, Servitor Cami, Vampire Astrid, Vampstrid, urban fantasy au, vampire romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-13 12:43:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19251439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athingofvikings/pseuds/athingofvikings
Summary: After meeting her mysterious stranger with magic powers and avoiding getting into a fight with him, Astrid has to take the next step: getting this man and his talking cat acclimated to the modern world.  Hiccup and Toothless, for their parts, are as headstrong as ever; sure, caution is a good idea, but so is making potential friends who they don't have to hide from!Episode 2 of How To Change A Destiny (HTTYD Urban Fantasy AU)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So here we go! Part 2 of my Urban Fantasy AU. In many ways, this is a "two-parter" episode, as it introduces things; while there'll be arcs and stuff later on that I have kinda planned, mostly I plan on it being more "Hijinks of the week with an overall arc"--although who knows? I might end up bitten by the plot bunnies and turn this into an epic (although I hope not).

Astrid eyed the no-tell motel with disfavor.  “You’ve been staying _here?”_

He shrugged.  “I tried a hotel, but, um… I didn’t have a reservation?  Or a credit card?”

She winced.  “Yeah… I can see that being an issue…”  Taking a deep breath, she nodded.  “Well, let’s get your stuff and get going, shall we?”

_[Um…]_

She turned and looked at the cat.  “What’s ‘um’?”

_[Well…]_ Toothless shifted uncomfortably, and Hiccup eyed his bud. 

“Toothless… what did you do?”

The cat sighed.  _[Well, when you warned the desk clerk not to try anything and he said ‘oh, of course not’, I bound him to his ‘promise’… and he broke it about an hour ago.]_

Hiccup made a pained noise and Astrid turned to look at him as he ran his hands through his hair.  “Rose and thorn, bud…” he sighed, and then asked, “What sanctions did you give him?”

_[A little one, promise!  Just now everyone will know that he’s a slimeball that doesn’t keep his word!]_

Hiccup quirked an eyebrow.  “I’m not sure what material difference that’ll make…”

Astrid looked between the pair of them.  “What did he do?”

“He bound the desk clerk to his word like he did with you… just without the man’s consent,” Hiccup said sourly, and started to walk over to the door. 

_[And it’s a good thing, too, because his specific promise was that he wouldn’t try anything with your stuff!]_

Astrid gave the cat a glance.  “So…”

“So he broke it and now everybody that talks to him will come away with the feeling that he can’t be trusted,” Hiccup said firmly, and opened the front door.

Astrid followed him in, pondering on how this looked; from most people’s perspectives, it would look like they were about to have a hookup, but their actual goal was to get in, grab his possessions, and leave. 

Although…

She eyed his firm ass in front of her as they walked in past the desk clerk, who was looking antsy. 

Yeah.  While she and Cami had been together for decades, monogamous, they weren’t, and knowing that he was some kind of supernatural with unknown powers was really the primary thing putting her off from the idea of taking him straight to bed when they got back to her place.  

As they went up the stairs, she asked, “So… if he tried something, aren’t you worried?”

Hiccup shook his head.  “No.  I took some precautions.”  Pausing on the landing, he eyed Toothless where the cat was keeping up with them.  “So fuzzball’s punitive measures here were completely uncalled for.”

_[Hey!  At least this way you know!]_

Hiccup sighed and pushed open the door to the hallway.  “Come on.”

Astrid followed, wondering what sort of _precautions_ Hiccup had taken—only for them to turn the corner and see a door hanging open, and a pair of feet sticking out into the hallway. 

“That’s your room, I take it?” she asked carefully.

Hiccup nodded.  “Well, can’t say I didn’t warn him.” 

They walked up, and she noticed with relief that the owner of the feet and his three compatriots were all still alive—just fast asleep.  One of the local gangs, by the look of them. 

“What did you do?” she asked.

“If they entered without permission, they fell asleep,” he said simply. 

She looked at him, suddenly slightly worried.  “For how long?”

He shrugged.  “I’m not a sadist.  A week, or until love’s kiss, whichever comes first.”

“Isn’t it usually ‘true love’?” she asked, watching him bend down and check over one of the sleeping forms. 

“If I wanted to spend a lot more magic on it, I could have made it that restrictive, yeah.  But that would draw attention, I think.  They’ll wake up in a week, don’t worry.”

“And what about water?  Won’t they die of dehydration?” she asked, just making sure that Hiccup wasn’t a lot more callous than he appeared. 

He shook his head.  “Oh, they’ll be thirsty as anything when they wake up, but they won’t die.  And if they’re in a hospital, then they won’t even notice.  Another reason to make it for just a week; the cost gets _steep_ the longer you make the curse last.”

She nodded hesitantly and then looked around.  Four men, all of them just snoozing peacefully where they’d just laid down, as if for a nap.  One of them was even clutching the bed’s pillow like it was a stuffed animal and smiling. 

They’d come to rob Hiccup blind and he gave them a _nap_ in response _._   And one with pleasant dreams _._

The more she thought about it, the more she was finding that she _liked_ him. 

Hiccup, for his part, had finished looking over the men, and picked up a simple rucksack from a chair next to the broken air conditioner.  “And we’re good.”

She quirked an eyebrow.  “That’s it?”

“Yep.”

Toothless was pawing through one of the men’s clothes, and produced a roll of bills, which he held between his paws.  _[Hey, bud, here.  They came to rob you, return the favor?]_

Astrid scoffed.  “Taking his flash money?  But I guess he has a point.”

_[And it’s not like Hiccup hasn’t gotten money from guys like these before.]_

“Oh?”

Hiccup shrugged.  “I don’t like bullies and I don’t like predators.”

_[Except me.  But I’m only scary to fish.]_

Astrid winced.  “I… I hope that I’ll earn that distinction too?”

Hiccup gave her a pained look.  “I’m sorry!  I didn’t think—”

“No, no, it’s okay,” she waved him down.  “Besides… I at least strive for symbiosis.”

Hiccup nodded.  “Well… so far, I’d say overall, my impression is good.”

She smiled, and then a silly thought occurred to her.  “Before we go… here.”  She bent down and picked up one of the sleepers; a few moments work had the four of them posed on the floor, spelling out YMCA.

Hiccup was leaning against the wall, arm stuffed in his mouth, trying to control his laughter, while Toothless wasn’t even bothering to try to stop giggling. 

Finished, she looked at him and said carefully, “So… um… your shirt?  Do you think that maybe you want to change it?”

“Oh, right,” Hiccup said, and popped off his jacket—which was quickly followed by his bloody shirt, which he stuffed into his bag.

She felt her mouth go dry at the sight of his bare chest and torso, dotted with freckles and reddish hair, decorated solely by a necklace that hung down to his breastbone with a large, ornate pendant on it.  Beefcake, he wasn’t, but he was wiry and toned, and her heart thrummed.  Oh, it was going to be pure torture having him in her place… but she’d already promised him hospitality. 

_Well, that would be just_ extra _hospitable, wouldn’t it?_ a silly voice that sounded like Cami’s came in the back of her mind, and she tore her eyes away as he reached into the bag—and then she looked back, her eyes going wide.

The rucksack was old school—a leather bag with no decals or markers on it, and a pair of leather straps, with a drawstring on top, maybe a foot and a half deep.

Which made the fact that Hiccup had his arm buried in it _past the elbow and almost up to his shoulder_ rather extraordinary, especially as the bag didn’t seem to be bulging or shifting in reaction to his limbs pushing out the sides. 

“Uh… how?”

He looked up at her, glanced down at the bag, and then back to her, before saying innocently, “Oh.  It’s bigger on the inside.”

“You don’t say,” she replied faintly.  Just what _was_ he?

A moment later, he produced another shirt with a flourish—and she burst out laughing, as it was an honest-to-god “I ♥ NY” shirt.

He grinned and pulled it on.

“Shall we?” he asked. 

Shaking her head ruefully, grinning, she nodded.  “Yes.”

As they left, Hiccup politely told the desk clerk that he’d found four men sleeping in his room and was going someplace else tonight.

Astrid found herself watching with amusement before she felt fur brush past her leg and looked down.  A pair of green eyes met hers, and Toothless said, _[Look.  I don’t trust you further than what you promised.  But I’m willing to give you a second chance to make a first impression.  You know, instead of the whole ‘I found you strangling him’ thing.]_

She winced and nodded.  “In my defense, I was dealing with an emotional high I haven’t had in most of a century,” she said.  “But yeah, I screwed up there, and I’m sorry.”

_[Accepted.  Just… look.  He’s a good guy, and more than a bit of a dork.  So am I, for that matter.  But if you break his heart or hurt him, I_ will _make you regret it, capishe?]_

She resisted the urge to laugh at a black cat making a threat like he was part of the old school mob, and instead nodded.  “I understand.”

 

.o0O0o.

Cami woke as a heavy weight settled onto her chest, and then blinked as she stared into a pair of slitted green eyes looking at her from a range of about eight inches. 

There was a heavy black cat sitting on her chest, purring slightly. 

“Well, hello there,” she said cheerfully—or at least as cheerfully as she could manage.  Her being used to her own ample bosom or not, he was _big,_ and she was a little short on air.  “Aren’t you a cutie?” she asked as she scritched under his chin, wondering where he’d come from. 

_[Why thank you for noticing!]_

“Of course I—what the!?” Cami yelped as she suddenly realized that the _cat was talking._

_[Why’d you stop?]_

She shrieked with surprise, punted the cat off of her chest, and bolted from the bed.

_[Hey!]_

Running out into the living room, she stopped dead at the sight of Astrid sitting at the table across from a _really_ cute guy.  Her mind started to run at maximum speed, trying to figure out how to keep the fact that there was a _talking cat_ in their bedroom when Astrid had brought dinner home with her—oh, and she was dressed in nothing more than panties and a tank-top, given that she’d been asleep only a few moments ago! 

As she stammered, “I, uh, hi—” and made more utterances with the same degree of intelligibility, another bizarre sight registered. 

The table was laden with food, most of it in front of Astrid, and her lover was chowing down with gusto. 

“I, uh, there’s a cat—” she stammered.

_[Yes, there’s a cat, and he was just getting comfy!]_ came, and she looked down to see the giant feline brushing up against her leg.

She jumped, trying to figure out how to hide the _talking cat_ from Astrid’s guest/dinner, when the guy sighed and facepalmed.  “Toothless!  Stop teasing her!”

_[But why?  It’s funny!]_

Cami took in that exchange, looked at the guy, looked at Astrid, and then looked at the cat, who was looking up at her expectantly—and then leapt into her arms without warning.

Grunting with surprise, she caught him—and then he grabbed one of her hands between his paws and guided it to his head.  _[There we go.  As you were.]_

The cute guy was stifling laughter, and Astrid was biting her lip, trying to hide a smile. 

Cami felt both lost and the butt of the joke.  “Can _someone_ fill me in?  I have a cat, and I’m not afraid to use it!”

_[Him!  I am very definitely a him!]_

She looked down at the cat and started to pet his head, and he purred.  “So… what’s _going on!?”_

Astrid grinned and said, slightly choked, “Camicazi, these are Hiccup and Toothless.  They’ll be staying with us for a few nights at least.  As you might have noticed, they’re not exactly… ordinary.”

_[I have thumbs!]_ the cat—Toothless—said excitedly. 

“And you talk,” Astrid commented wryly. 

Cami felt her jaw hanging open slightly and shut it before saying, “So… uh… how?  Why?” 

The man—Hiccup—shrugged.  “I was at a nightclub, this pretty girl came up to me, we danced, we kissed, and then she tried to eat me!”  He looked to her.  “And, well… I freaked out.”

Astrid eyed the chocolate bar in her hand and took a bite.  “So he… did _something._   And now…”  She stood and walked over to Cami.  Glancing at Hiccup and then at Toothless, she said firmly, “Not one word from either of you.”

_[Why would I say anything?  I’m watchi—Hey!]_

Astrid picked up the cat out of Cami’s arms, and unceremoniously tossed him onto the couch, making Hiccup burst out laughing.  Then Astrid reached up, put her hand behind Cami’s head, and pulled her down to her chest. 

Cami was baffled; not that she minded getting personal with her lover’s bosom, it seemed a bit of a public venue.  And then she _heard_ something she’d never heard before.

_“Holy shit!”_ She lurched upright and stared Astrid in the face.  “ _Your heart!”_

Astrid hugged her, and Cami could feel her pulse, ever so slightly, through the contact.  “ _Yes._   And I can _eat_ again, and, and, I _feel_ again, and, and, and…” she stammered to a halt, her eyes shining with tears.  “And now, since they’re… well, not from around here, not that they’ll _tell_ me anything more than that, I promised to play tour guide while we figure out what he did, how long it lasts… and if he can do it again.”

Cami pulled back from Astrid and looked at Hiccup, who seemed to be enjoying the moment—but not in the “two hot women are hugging in front of me” lecher way, but in the “I did this and I’m happy” way.

“Is she cured?” Cami asked him.

“I have not the slightest clue,” he said with a shrug. 

Astrid sighed.  “I doubt it.  It’s a curse for a reason.  And I’m still a _vampire.”_   She opened her mouth and showed her fangs.  “But if nothing else, I feel like I did after I was just turned.”

Cami whistled.  “Damn.”

Astrid grinned.  “And now I have a question for you, love.”

“Yes?”

“Can I steal a pint of your Ben and Jerry’s?  The more chunky, the better.”

Cami burst out laughing and nodded, before feeling the cat rub up against her again.  Crouching, she picked up the feline and started to scritch under his chin.

_[Oh yeah.  Right there.  That’s what I’m talking about.  A little to the left…]_

As she played with the _talking cat,_ Cami looked at his… owner? master? partner?, and asked, “So… Hiccup.  What are you doing here, and what do you get out of this?”

Hiccup shrugged.  “I think that’s a fair question.  Two of them, actually.  How about I answer them and then I get to ask two of my own?”

Cami looked to Astrid where she was busy stuffing cookie dough ice cream into her mouth at top speed, and she nodded. 

“All right.  A question for a question, then.”

Hiccup grinned.  “Well, as for the first question, what I’m doing here…”  He shrugged cheerfully.  “I kinda ran away from home because my father’s overprotective and wouldn’t let me come here unsupervised.  So my mom covered for me, and Toothless and I left.  I want to see the world, learn things, see all of the amazing creations humanity has crafted… stuff like that.”

Cami quirked an eyebrow.  “You’re a _tourist?”_

“Yes.”  He smiled impishly.  “And since I’m nice, I won’t count that as a question from you.”

She winced and nodded as Toothless purred against her chest. 

“As for your second question, _what do I get out of this?_ , well, there’s the native guide that I don’t have to hide, say, _my talking cat_ from, or any of my magics, which is a plus.  Also, Astrid is a hell of a good dancer… and I’m really, _really_ curious to learn about actual vampires!” he said cheerfully.

Cami gave him a pained smile.  Oh, she hoped he wasn’t one of the ones that had romantic notions about vampires…  “So… your questions, I guess.”

Hiccup considered for a moment and asked, “I can tell that you’re not a vampire.  What are you?”

“That’s a bit personal!” she fired back, irked, only to have Astrid make a waving motion and mouthed, _tell him._   “But fine.  I’m a servitor.  Renfield, ghoul, blood-slave, there’s a bunch of names for us.  I’m kept young and strong by Astrid’s blood, and I help her in exchange, as I can still go out in daylight and all that.”

“Huh.  Um, I apologize for the offense… and my next question…”  He paused.  “Hey, bud, do you have anything you want to ask?”

_[Sure!  So, where do you get the best fish in the city?]_

Cami looked down at the cat, not sure if she was appalled or amused, and shook her head.  “Seriously?  _That’s_ your question?”

_[Yep.  Salmon preferred, but I’ll take cod or tuna.  Just not eel.  Eel is gross.]_

Cami raised an eyebrow.  “There are a _lot_ of seafood restaurants in the city, so I don’t know which one is best… but I know that all of them will have a ‘no pets’ policy.”

_[Takeout?]_

She chuckled.  “I suppose we can do that.”

Astrid, having finished her ice cream, spoke up.  “Besides, he’s not actually a cat.  My turn for a question.   What are you _really,_ Toothless?”  She looked at Hiccup.  “You asked about Cami, I can ask about him.”

“No, no, that’s fair,” he said.  “And well played.”  He looked to Toothless.  “Go ahead, bud.  Show her.”


	2. Chapter 2

Astrid didn’t know what to expect when Hiccup had agreed with her gambit—they’d only known each other for a few hours, after all, although they’d been very _intense_ hours—but it had paid off.

Toothless leapt down from Cami’s arms, looked around the apartment—which was on the larger size for the city, as Astrid had been renting the place since the 70s, and she had rent control that drove her landlord nuts—and padded off a few feet.

What happened next was… strange.

One moment, the cat seemed to fuzz up and defocus, like Astrid’s own image in a photograph or mirror…

And the next, there _wasn’t_ a cat there any longer.

Instead, a monster, long and sinuous, with black scales and green eyes the size of saucers, was sitting in her living room, the couch having been knocked to the side by its flank—and then her own eyes widened when she saw the _wings._

“Holy shit!” she screamed at the _dragon_ that had appeared in her apartment.

Hiccup stood up.  “Astrid, this is Toothless.  And bud—”

_[Yeah, yeah, I know.  She’s a friend.  No frying.]_

Astrid turned and saw that Cami was also leaning up against the wall in shock, as Toothless turned to her and sniffed at her.  _[Am I still a cutie?]_

Cami was trying to keep from screaming, panting with fear and her eyes near perfect circles, only for Hiccup to go, “Bud, back off and let her breathe, all right?”

_[Fine, fine.]_  The dragon stepped back and leaned back on his haunches, wings slightly spread, and looked at Astrid.  _[So… what you were expecting?]_ he asked, giving her a wide gummy smile… in a mouth that had no teeth.

_Toothless.  Riiiight._

She gave a hesitant laugh and shook her head.  “Not really, no.  So… what… you’re a _dragon?_   I thought you were a person or something!”

_[I_ am _a person!]_

“I… okay, wrong choice of words there—I thought you were a transformed human or something!”  Taking animal shape was something a few vampires could do, she knew.

Toothless shrugged—which involved him moving both his shoulders and wings.  _[Nah.  I’ve tried being human a few times, and your skin itches.  I’ll do it, but I honestly prefer the cat guise.]_

She glanced at Hiccup, who was holding in laughter with his fist covering his mouth and his eyes crinkling.  He winked at her and said, “Think you can change back now, bud?  I don’t know if the floors here can support you.”

_[Hey, at least I’m not your dad.]_

“Was that a crack about his weight?” Hiccup bantered.

_[Maybe…]_ Toothless sassed, and reached a claw up to a collar with an amulet on it.  A moment later, he _fuzzed_ again, and then the big black cat was sitting on Astrid’s rug in the midst of a bunch of knocked-over furniture.  With a soft _meow,_ he started to lick at his paws. 

Cami was calming rapidly, and Astrid could practically hear the gears whirling in her lover’s quick mind as she bent down and started petting Toothless.  He quickly accepted her touches, stretching out and purring.

Now that she was taking a closer look, she noticed that Cat-form Toothless _also_ had a collar, featuring a medallion, and Hiccup had the necklace she’d seen earlier.

“That wasn’t an illusion or trickery, was it?” Cami asked, stroking down the length of Toothless’ back.

_[I think it’s Hiccup’s turn for a question.]_

Astrid turned to look at Hiccup, who shrugged.  “I do have a question, dear host,” he said with a smile. 

“Oh?”

“While your chest is certainly very nice, can I look you in the eye without being worried about being hypnotized?”

Cami and Toothless both snorted, and Cami commented, “What, my chest doesn’t get complimented too?”

_[It’s a very nice chest.  Hey, Hiccup, why don’t you come with built-in pillows like these?  They’re comfy to sit on.]_

Astrid choked and started to laugh.  “God, he’s terrible!”

“Oh, you have no idea.  He’s my brother from another mother,” Hiccup said, “but the _sass…”_

Astrid shook her head and grinned.  “Well, in answer to your question, yes, it’s safe to look me in the eye.  The most I’ve learned to do is give suggestions to drunks and druggies who don’t know it’s coming.”

Hiccup smiled and looked her in the eye.  “Good.  Because they’re very pretty eyes.”

She looked him in his own.  “Are you bantering, or trying to get me to sleep with you?”

Hiccup grinned.  “I’ll take that as a question, and the answer is both.”

She stared at him for a moment, her jaw hanging open slightly.  “Well, that’s straightforward.”

“Eh,” he said with a shrug.  “You asked, and I told the truth.  You—and your lady aide here—are both gorgeous, so I’m not going to lie and say I’m not interested.  But I’m also happy being friends.”

Astrid glanced at Cami, who was looking at her with surprise. 

As she looked back at him, Hiccup shrugged.  “Look, you already commented that you were considering doing _exactly_ that.”  He sheepishly ran his hands through his hair.  “So I don’t think _physical_ attraction is an issue here.  But, to be honest…” he gave another shrug, spreading his hands out in a disarming motion, and Astrid noted that his body language was _very_ expressive, “I really don’t do casual relationships.  And if we’re going to end up staying with you, I’d rather have good friends that I don’t sleep with compared with…” he glanced upwards in thought, only to get interrupted by Cami.

“Fuck buddies?  Friends-with-benefits?  Hookups?” she offered with a smile as she petted Toothless. 

He shrugged again.  “Yeah.”

Astrid took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.  This night was already so surreal.  She’d gone out, like she had a thousand times before, for feeding before going on with her regular routine… and then this _guy_ and his _dragon_ had crashed into her life… and now her _heart_ was beating and he was in her place…

She forced her racing thoughts to pause, inhaled, and said, “Your question.  And then I want to know _what_ you are, since you know what I am.”  She looked him dead in the eye and said as firmly as she could, “because, yes, I want to be friends with you, but I _can’t_ with that kind of secret hanging over it.”

Hiccup paused, seemed to consider, and then asked, “Do you _have_ any human friends, aside from Cami here?”  He pursed his lips.  “Or any friends at all who don’t already know?  That’s two questions, by the way.”

Astrid felt that question like a stab wound, and, after a moment where her beating heart seemed to clench, she looked down and shook her head.  “No, no human friends.  Not real friends.  Because then it’s hard to explain why I’m not getting older.  And other vampires…”  She swallowed and said bitterly, “Yeah, maybe one or two, but…”  _but since there are only a few hundred vampires in the whole of New York City, and most of them are_ much _older than me, I’m less ‘friend,’ and more ‘pawn’._   “…But it’s hard to make friends among my kind, where there’s politics being played out all the time, some of them dating back to the fucking Middle Ages!”

Hiccup nodded ruefully.  “I feel you there.  So you want to know what I am?”  He touched his own amulet and _fuzzed._

Astrid stared.

 

.o0O0o.

Hiccup felt like he was being reckless, but he really didn’t care.  Yes, telling the vampire girl he’d met only about four hours earlier what he and Toothless were was a risk, but he _liked_ her.  Also she _was_ right—it was unfair to expect this relationship to proceed as if they were equals if there was such an asymmetry of knowledge.  Also, given the heady taste of lust he was getting from both women, he felt that he wasn’t at risk of being killed and eaten, except perhaps in a metaphorical manner. 

Either way, as his natural form appeared, he felt that lust spike, along with sprightly astonishment and tart disbelief. 

“You’re an _elf?”_ Cami blurted.

Hiccup shrugged.  “Technically, no.  I think I’m closer to a brownie or dwarf, going by modern classifications.  But I _am_ a faerie.  Well, mostly.  My grandmother was human.  That’s why I’m here—because I wanted to see where I came from.”

Cami stood, leaving Toothless on the floor, making him protest. _[Hey!  Doesn’t the cutie cat get more pets?]_

Ignoring him, she walked over to Hiccup, and started to pace around him, looking him up and down.  Hiccup did his best to look her in the eye, but the shorter woman was _very_ distracting, between her full figure and her state of semi-undress.  “Jeeze- _uss_.  Orlando Bloom, eat your heart out,” she said from behind him.

“Who?”

“You haven’t seen The Lord Of The Rings?” Cami asked, astonishment clear in her voice.

“I… I haven’t been _here,_ in the mortal world, in almost forty years,” Hiccup said.  “And I won’t count that as a question.  But I _have_ read the books…”

Astrid seemed to have recovered from her surprise, and commented dryly, “Well, I think a movie night is in order.”

_[Just don’t show him Star Wars, or we’ll lose him.  The last time he was out here, his parents took him to the theater to see Return of the Jedi, and he hasn’t shut up about it since.]_

He ignored Toothless’ comment—and the accuracy in it—and looked to Astrid.  “So… milady, what’s your second question, now that you know what I am?”

She took a deep breath, and, after a moment, said carefully, “One sex… _sec._   I’m not used to dealing with emotions this intense any more…”

Cami and Toothless both made amused noises at Astrid’s slip of the tongue, but Hiccup ignored them.  He just politely bowed his head.  “Take the time you need.  But shall we call our question game to an end after you’re done?”

She nodded, and then bit her lip, looking him over, before turning back to his face.  “You’re not… not _that_ different from the human illusion.”

He nodded.  “Unlike fish-for-brains over there—”

_[Hey!]_

“—I blend a lot easier.  It’s mostly hiding these,” he pointed to his eyes, “and these,” he pointed to his ears.

“And cheekbones and a jawline I could cut myself on,” Cami commented cheerfully, although Hiccup didn’t miss the tart lust coming off of her.  “You said that you don’t do casual relationships.  Right now, I’m wondering what qualifies as ‘not casual’ and if there’s a guidebook to getting there quick.”

Toothless snickered as Hiccup bowed his head, blushing slightly.  “I guess I brought that on myself.  We’ll see.  We have time, and it _is_ getting late.”

Astrid suddenly spoke up.  “Where are you _from?”_

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“That’s my question.  Where are you from?  You keep saying you haven’t been _here_ in years.  Where have you spent that time?”

_[Whooo boy.  This’ll be interesting.]_

Hiccup took a deep breath and considered how to phrase it.  “We’re from… Elsewhere.”  Astrid and Cami both returned uncomprehending looks.  “The place under the hill, behind the mirrors, through the door that only opens on the light of a full moon after pricking yourself on a rosebush.  The realms secret and hidden.  My father rules a place called Berk, in a land called Arcadia, but there are many realms there.”  He shrugged.  “You commented about how some of the politics of your kind can be traced back to the Middle Ages?  I’ve met fae who complain about the mortals’ newfound discovery of _iron,_ and all of the trouble it causes.”

Cami whistled, impressed. 

Astrid nodded, and he felt a spike of curiosity and interest from her, strong enough that he didn’t need to expend any effort to feel them, just as she said, “I agree that our question exchange is done… but I have one more to ask, that you don’t have to answer.”

“Yes?”

“When you leave to go back…”  She looked him in the eye.  “Is there any chance you could take us with you?”

Hiccup blinked.  “Why?  Why would you want that?”

Astrid swallowed.  “It’s hard to explain.  But you wanted to come here to see and learn?”

_[That, and he was bored.]_

Astrid stepped forward into his personal space, and said, “Well, I’ve _lived_ more tonight than I have in years.  And I’d like to see your home… and maybe get away from the politics and muck here that defines my life.”  She lightly punched his shoulder with a smile.  “So that’s for completely destroying my routine and life as I knew it.”  Then she stood up on tip-toe and kissed his cheek lightly.  “And that’s for everything else that comes with it.”  She stepped back.

Hiccup blinked, and touched at the impression of her lips on his cheek.  After a moment, he said, “We’ll see?  First… let’s see how whatever it was that I did affected you long-term.”

She nodded.  “I’m going to go find a notebook and write down observations.”

Cami smirked.  “We shall do science to it!”

“Exactly,” Astrid said.  “And while I’m doing that, Cami, since we’re _not_ taking Hiccup to bed for wild monkey sex _tonight,_ ” and they all laughed at the emphasis, “let’s get him and Toothless settled in, shall we?”

Cami nodded. 

As they busied themselves with making up the couch for Hiccup to sleep on, and improvising a cat bed for Toothless, Astrid found a notebook and some tools from Cami’s first aid kit. 

Cami’s blood pressure cuff returned healthy numbers, which made Astrid stare for a long moment at the digital display.  Normal heart rate, normal blood pressure.  Writing them down in a notebook, Astrid also detailed her observations of what had happened, and her mental state since.  She checked her watch; it had been… _five hours_ since Hiccup had completely upended her life. 

She would need to take more notes for if and when they could replicate it.

But if it did fade and they couldn’t do it again…

She rose and went to raid the kitchen, before pausing.  No.  She had a better idea.

Finding Cami on their bed in their room, she closed the door behind her.

“Jeeze, Ast.  I—”

Astrid pounced and kissed her.  “Talk later.  Right now, I want to _feel_ this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am loving the reactions to this story, btw. And I have to say, the image I have for that scene at the beginning is of Toothless, in all his gummy-smile glory, with the specific expression and posture of him trying to imitate Hiccup's smile in the cove in HTTYD1, sitting in a NYC apartment. ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

Hiccup woke when Toothless’ furry tail smacked him in the face. 

_[Wake up!]_

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled as he rubbed sleep from his eyes and sat up; the couch was _much_ more comfortable than that motel’s bed had been. 

_[Whatever you did wore off a little while ago.]_

“Oh.”  He glanced at the clock on the wall to note the time; just about ten in the morning.  So it had lasted for, what, twelve hours?  Then the oddity of the clock struck him and he rose from the couch to take a closer look. 

The display was digital, using the seven-segment display that he was familiar with to show the time; but below the time, it had another display, which, he was fascinated to see, listed the date, current conditions, weather forecast—with cute graphics—sunrise and sunset, and moon phase.  But how did it tell…?  He looked, and there were no wires connecting it to a sensor or anything; just a small symbol with what looked like a satellite dish with the word _Atomic_ underneath it.

“Huh… how do you work?” he pondered out loud.

_[Oh, here we go again…]_

“I mean, the calendar and sun and moon stuff, that’s easy… I think.  You just need an internal calendar.  But where is it getting the weather stuff?”

Drawing on his Wyrd, he reached out to Artifice, the Concept of Man’s Works, and asked It if he could ask for Its Aid in understanding the Works of Man, as one of the clauses of their Contract stipulated.  The abstract concept requested some of his magic in payment, but he demurred, pointing out that he had already examined a working in depth and detail and was unable to determine its function, and thus owed nothing. 

After a moment, Artifice seemed to agree, grudgingly, and Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief.  If he hadn’t been so low on his own internal reservoirs of magic, he would have paid the cost, as he’d been relying on that particular loophole a _lot_ lately.  But Artifice allowed him to communicate with the clock’s slumbering spirit, and he asked the small device on how it worked.  Basic understanding of its functions trickled into his mind as he questioned the array of circuits and plastics; it used radio signals to receive signals sent out by a digital service that contained the information it displayed.  There was no internal calendar or storage of any kind, really, but instead it relied on that transmission for all its information beyond the basic clock—which was calibrated and updated based on that transmission’s content.

_[Hiccup.  Look alive.]_

Hiccup turned to see Cami and Astrid standing at the entrance to the living room, Astrid looking a little pale, both of them watching him. 

“Uh… is there a problem?”  He looked at Astrid and then back to the clock.  “Hey, wait, I thought vampires sleep during the day?”

Astrid settled down into an armchair, waving off Cami’s solicitous efforts to help her.  “Elders do.  Younger vampires can walk around during the day if we stay sheltered from the sun, but it’s _exhausting._ ”  She looked at Hiccup questioningly.  “So, what are you doing with our clock?”

“I was asking it how it worked,” he answered matter-of-factly. 

Cami and Astrid shared a look, and then Cami responded, “Of course you were.  Did it answer?”

“It did!” he said cheerfully. 

Cami’s mouth opened, closed, opened again, and then shut with a click before she said, “From anyone else, I’d be wondering what they were smoking.  But from you… I’ll just accept it.”

_[Good call.  So, Astrid, how are you feeling?]_   Toothless hopped down off of the back of the couch.

“Back to normal, I suppose,” she said, sounding tired and slightly bitter, which made Hiccup wince.  “I mean… I don’t want to sound ungrateful—I’m not!—but…”

_[You feel like you got teased, don’t you?]_

“A bit, yeah,” she said.  She inhaled—and then jumped as Toothless hopped into her lap and started purring loudly.  “Oh, hi there.”

_[Don’t mind me.  You just look like you could use a bit of comfort.]_

“Thanks, Toothless,” she said, and then looked up at Cami and Hiccup.  “So…”

“So?” Hiccup echoed. 

“First off, do you need to eat?” she asked.  “As your host, I should be feeding you.”

“I do, yeah, although there are ways around it.”  Dangerous ways; magical nutrition was addictive. 

“Well, how about this, then?  Do you have _any_ paperwork, or anything that looks like an official identity?” Astrid asked.

Hiccup shook his head.  “You’re talking birth certificates and driver’s licenses and that stuff, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Uhhh… no.”

Cami snorted.  “Well, Ast, where exactly would ICE even try to deport him to?  Over the rainbow?  Besides, he looks white so they won’t care.”

Hiccup had no idea what she was referring to, but Astrid scoffed.  “Yeah, but he still needs to keep a low profile.”  She started petting Toothless.  “Can you start getting Hiccup settled with that stuff?  And then, tonight, we’ll see about getting his wardrobe updated?”

Cami smirked.  “You want to be there for it, don’t you?”  She gave Hiccup an assessing look which he could _tell_ had her picturing him naked. 

“Yes,” Astrid said with a grin. 

Hiccup considered for a moment, and said carefully, “And what about you?”

“What about me?” Astrid asked.

“Well, I rather messed up your feeding last night.  Will you need to feed some more?” he asked.

“Are you volunteering?” she countered.

He shook his head.  “No, not yet.  But, well, I’m concerned.”  And he also needed to recharge his own magics, and that was best done at places like the nightclubs. 

Astrid stiffened.  “I’m _fine,_ and I won’t eat you.  I gave my word.”

Hiccup held up his hands.  “Not what I meant!  I’m concerned for you!  I mean, I messed things up and I want to make sure it’ll be all right for you!”

Mollified, Astrid nodded.  “I see.”  She smiled and looked at Cami before reaching out one arm—the one that wasn’t occupied with petting Toothless—and touching Cami’s forearm.  “Besides, last night was plenty good for us.”

_[I want it noted for the record that_ I _didn’t bring it up!  Hiccup told me I’d be a fur hat if I did!]_

Both Cami and Astrid looked at Hiccup, who shrugged.  “What?  I wasn’t going to say anything, but we _did_ hear you.”

Astrid grinned at him, her free hand taking Cami’s.  “Well, I appreciated it.”

_[We noticed—ahhh!]_

Astrid casually punted Toothless onto the couch like he was a throw pillow and not a flailing seventeen-plus-pound ball of muscle and fur.  He vanished into the remnants of Hiccup’s bedding, only to have his head pick up out of the blankets a moment later.

_[Okay, no more teasing the vampire, even if it is_ hilarious. _]_

Cami burst out laughing as Astrid smiled sweetly at Toothless, and Hiccup noticed that her canines were ever so slightly elongated. 

“So, now that we had some cuddle time,” Astrid said, and then yawned, stretching, “I’m gonna go hit the sack and actually sleep.  Cami, you help Hiccup get settled so he can at least _pass_ as a legitimate citizen?”

Cami nodded.  “Will do.”  She motioned to Hiccup.  “Come on, handsome.  We have some work to do.”

.o0O0o.

A cup of strong coffee in hand, Cami settled in at her computer station, Hiccup occupying Astrid’s usual chair, while Toothless had leapt up onto the shelves above the desk’s surface, and was watching them from next to her printer. 

“So, reading between the lines, you were last here in, what, eighty-three, eighty-four?” she asked and took a sip of her brew.

Hiccup nodded. 

“And you’ve got nothing.  No birth certificate, no driver’s license, no passport, no nothing.”

“I can craft some basic illusions and make people _think_ they can see one, but they’re not very good, yeah,” he said, nodding again.

“All right.”  She took a deep breath.  “Let’s get to work then.  At least a driver’s license—enough to get you into a club, but I think bank accounts and credit cards are going to be off the table for now _.”_

_[Why?]_

She glanced up at the cat.  “Because there’s a world of difference between a fake card that we can hand to a bouncer that says that Hiccup here is over twenty-one years old, and constructing an entire fake digital identity that’ll stand up to the bank’s cross-checks.  I can fool a bouncer easy—but tricking everyone from the government to the banks into believing that Hiccup _exists_ when they have no records of him is more than I can handle in an afternoon.”

_[This is that ‘birth certificate’ thing, right?]_

“Exactly.”

_[I never understood why you needed to be proven to be born.  Shouldn’t the fact that you exist be proof enough?]_

Hiccup snorted.  “Pardon Toothless; he likes playing dumb.”  He looked up at the disguised dragon.  “Bud, you know it’s not ‘proof of being born’ it’s ‘proof who you were born _to.’_ ”

_[Spoil my fun.]_

Cami looked up at him just to see him lick his nose and rolled her eyes.  “You’re the wrong mythical creature, Toothless.”

_[Oh?  How so?]_

“You’re a troll, not a dragon.”

_[What do you mean by that?]_

“Trolls… wait.  Has _he_ ever been out here?” she asked.

_[Nope.  My life is… complicated.]_

Hiccup scoffed and Cami glanced at him.  “Do I detect an understatement?”

“Oh yes.  But that’s fae politics for you.  Suffice it to say that, compared to most dragons, Toothless is a…” he paused dramatically, “big pussy cat.”

_[Hey!]_

“Bud, no sense in denying it.”

The cat gave him a glare and then crossed his forepaws atop each other before settling his chin down on them, his eyes half-lidded.  _[No fair.]_

Cami swallowed a chuckle at their banter and brought up her photo-editing software.  “All right. So, let’s get down to business, shall we?  ID first, and then we go get you a phone.”

“Sounds good.” 

What followed was mostly boring, routine stuff.  Cami was a skilled forger and hacker, if she did say so herself, and she and Astrid did a lot for the elder vampires who had grown up in periods where a break-in at the local church’s baptism records would have managed what she was doing now.  The issue was that getting a _good_ fake ID would require a birth certificate—and while Cami was currently nurturing a number of “shelf-babies” (fakes in the system that she’d planted at ‘birth’, giving them histories and a paper trail that would stand up to most scrutiny) most of those were on ‘order’ for some of the longer-viewed elders like Viggo.  By the time he’d need a new ID, his fake would be ‘of age’ and he could step into its shoes with ease.  Cami was aware that Viggo occasionally considered the advantages of having her and Astrid removed for his security, but they provided a vital service—plus Astrid had set up deadmail that would expose him if bad things happened to them. 

But _Hiccup_ was fresh out of whatever portal he’d stepped through—an idea that Cami found _fascinating_ —and while she had a few shelf babies for emergencies, including some that matched herself and Astrid, giving up an investment of time and effort to a guy that she and Astrid had just met was _well_ beyond the call of hospitality.  So he could get by with a fake driver’s license for now, and, if he ended up sticking around and pulling his worth, she could give him a better ID later. 

So, for the moment, a fake driver’s license would have to suffice, and a bit of fiddling with photo editing—and the use of some of her precious stock of government-grade ID blanks—turned out an acceptable Ohio driver’s license a short while later. 

As she went to hand over the card for ‘Henry Haddock’, date of birth putting him in his mid-twenties, she paused, and as Hiccup reached for it, she snagged his wrist and pulled him into a brief but _oh_ so _satisfying_ peck on the lips, even as she slipped the card into his hand. 

_[I was wondering when that would happen!]_

She flipped off the cat, who laughed. 

Hiccup blinked and grinned.  “Well, I can’t say that you haven’t been hospitable.”

She smirked.  “Thank you.  So… I have a question for you.”

“Yeah?”

“You mentioned that you were _talking_ to the clock.  _How?_ ”

Hiccup paused and considered for a moment, his hand on his chin.  “Why do you want to know?”

“Curiosity, plus wondering if you can actually speak to computers,” she said earnestly, imagining the possibilities.

Hiccup glanced up at Toothless, who gave a very catty shrug.  “Well, you did just help above and beyond the call of hospitality,” he said, his head tilted and contemplating the new ID card.  “Sure.  Um… hmm.  How to explain this…?”

Cami watched his cute face twist as he considered, and sat back in her chair, before leaning back and putting her feet in Hiccup’s lap. 

He glanced down.  “That isn’t helping my focus,” he said with a smile. 

She grinned.  “I could make it worse.”  She wiggled her feet and enjoyed how his face contorted.

Reaching down, he gently plucked her feet off of his lap.  “Thinking here.  Very serious.”

“Mmmhhmm.”  She smirked, but retracted her feet back to her own chair, drawing her knees up under her chin.  “I’ll be good.”

_[I doubt that highly, but I’m sure you can fake it.]_

“Exactly!”

Hiccup gave an exaggerated sigh, even as he smiled.  “All right.  So… getting a bit philosophical here for a moment.  Are you familiar with the Allegory of the Cave?”

Cami quirked an eyebrow.  “That’s ancient Greek shit, isn’t it?  Reality is an illusion and we see the shadows of the real stuff on the wall and think they’re real?”

He nodded.  “Exactly.”  He took a deep breath and sighed it out before saying, “I can talk with the stuff that _casts the shadows._ ”

Cami blinked.  “You’re going to have to run that by me.”

“All right.  So we play with illusions, abstractions, figments.  Fae mathematicians can get entertaining.”

_[Or lethal, if you trick them into dividing by zero.]_

Cami’s eyes went wide at that, only for Hiccup to wave her down.  “That’s just a tall tale.  There’s never been a proven case of that actually having an effect!” he admonished Toothless.  “So stop trolling Cami.”  She’d explained what the internet slang meant while they’d worked on his ID, and Hiccup had agreed that it fit his companion perfectly. 

The cat huffed.  _[Fine.]_

“So there are three _general_ categories of fae magic: illusions, bargains, and Contracts.  Illusions are, well, exactly what you think.” 

“Like those amulets,” Cami said, pointing at Hiccup’s.

“Exactly.  Or my bag.  I gave it the illusion of having more space.  And bargains like what Toothless did with Astrid for our hospitality.  You can even combine the two, like the trap I set for anyone coming to rob me, but you have to be very careful on how you word it, and they don’t last long compared to, say, my bag or this amulet.”

Cami considered that.  “Nifty.  So what are Contracts?”

Hiccup shifted uncomfortably but continued after a moment.  “So if illusions are us crafting a figment and making it real, Contracts are the opposite: we find something real and reach out to the abstract behind it.”  He bit his lip.  “It’s complicated, but, here.  I’m a signatory to the Contract with Artifice—the _concept_ of ‘man-made tools’.”

“Wait, the _concept_?”

He nodded.  “The Contract was originally drafted a _loooong_ time ago, and I can’t change any of the wording to it, but I can do stuff like ask Artifice to help me talk to the _lesser_ concepts under its purview.  So when I was talking with your clock earlier, I was asking Artifice to mediate a conversation between me and the _concept_ —the spirit, if you will—of your clock so I could ask it questions on how it worked.”

Cami stared at him.  “So, wait, you can just _ask_ any sort of tool that’s man-made _how it works?_ ”

“Pretty much.  I can also ask it—politely—if it’s willing to do me favors,” he said, and grinned.

“What sort of favors?” she asked, slightly numbly. 

He held up his hands.  “I think I’ve told enough there for the moment.  Also, don’t worry—me using my powers to try to… what’s the word, _hack?_ , your computer here would _definitely_ be a violation of hospitality.  And then me and Toothless would get smacked by the sanctions on his bargain with Astrid.”

_[And I’d rather not get cursed, thank you.]_

Cami nodded.  “Um…  with powers like that, why aren’t your people ruling the world?”  She knew that the reason that vampires weren’t was that humans had things like _fire_ and the _SUN._   But elders still did a lot of string-pulling from the shadows in their risk-averse way. 

_[Iron]_ “Iron,” the pair of them said together.

“Wait, what?” she responded.

Hiccup shrugged.  “I’m _mostly_ immune to it, but iron will still degrade my magics, if not block them completely… but it’ll actively _hurt_ Toothless or any other full-blooded fae on contact.”

_[And iron swords were very popular for a long time.  Ditto for arrowheads.]_

“And we’re still flesh-and-blood creatures,” Hiccup added.  “I can bleed out and die just as easily as any mundane human if my magic doesn’t work.”

Cami winced.  “Well, let’s hope that we don’t have to deal with that.”  She sighed and stood, stretching her back—and enjoying how Hiccup pointedly looked anywhere other than her chest—and then said, “Well, let’s go get you a phone, shall we?”

**Author's Note:**

> Secrecy? Compulsive paranoia? What's that? :D


End file.
